Bodily Experience and Restricted Conditions in Contemporary Art

The Doctoral research was carried out with the primary purpose of reviewing past practice designs and for identifying how body movements contributes to these designs. The context in which the body movements are understood are that of discipline enforced by culture and other physio-biological restraints. A discussion on the relationships of body experience in restricted conditions are carried out, which includes the interaction between movement and space in the application of painting, moulding, biological markers, and moving images. The discipline, socially acceptable practices and regulations present in the researcher’s personal life and culture frame the artworks and a fascinating exploration of dynamics between freedom of movement in artwork construction and restrain of behaviour has been analyzed. In the process of art production, significant points discussed were with respect to the identification, succession and repetition of habitual acts. In addition, bodily movement could be considered as a synthesis of spatiality and temporality. The key point which contains the elements of time and space remains relevant to my creative practice and theoretical research. The core interest of my practice is in understanding the settings and simple rules for bodily movement, which is inspired by the past and forms a possible creation for the future. In this research, the attempt was not to display a comprehensive understanding on how body influences the design of art but rather to explain how understanding body movements provides a trace of my works, from origin, the working process and to completion. Relevant artworks and reflection of personal experiences are discussed as needed to help the reader gain more insight on the interactions of body in art creations.

Measurement of Training Intensity and Work During Submaximal Isokinetic Progressive Resistance Training Protocols

Physical exercise programmes are routinely prescribed in clinical practice to treat impairments, improve activity and participation in daily life because of their known physiological, health and psychological benefits (RCP, 2009). Progressive resistance exercise is a type of exercise prescribed specifically to improve skeletal muscle strength (Latham et al., 2004). The effectiveness of progressive resistance exercise varies considerably between studies and populations. This thesis focuses on how training parameters influence the delivery of progressive resistance exercise. In order to appropriately evaluate the influence of training parameters, this thesis argues the need to record training performance and the total work completed by participants as prescribed by training protocols. In the first study, participants were taken through a series of protocols differentiated by the intensity and volume of training. Training intensity was defined as a proportion of the mean peak torque achieved during maximal voluntary contractions and was set at 80% and 40% respectively of the MVC mean peak torque. Training volume was defined as the total external work achieved over the training period. Measures of training performance were developed to accurately report the intensity, repetitions and work completed during the training period. A second study evaluated training performance of the training protocols over repeated sessions. These protocols were then applied to 3 stroke survivors. Study 1 found sedentary participants could achieve a differentiated training intensity. Participants completing the high and low intensity protocols trained at 80% and 40% respectively of the MVC mean peak torque. The total work achieved in the high intensity low repetition protocol was lower than the total work achieved in the low intensity high repetition protocol. With repeated practice, study 2 found participants were able to improve in their ability to perform manoeuvres as shown by a reduction in the variation of the mean training intensity achieving total work as specified by the protocol to a lower margin of error. When these protocols were applied to 3 stroke survivors, they were able to achieve the specified training intensity but they were not able to achieve the total work as expected for the protocol. This is likely to be due to an inability in achieving a consistent force throughout the contraction. These results demonstrate evaluation of training characteristics and support the need to record and report training performance characteristics during progressive resistance exercise, including the total work achieved, in order to elucidate the influence of training parameters on progressive resistance exercise. The lack of accurate training performance may partly explain the inconsistencies between studies on optimal training parameters for progressive resistance exercise.